Friday, December 31, 2010

The subject line says it all. Sonic Charge releases a major update to its fantastic drum synth µTonic a minute from midnight tonight. The update is absolutely free for registered users. Use it to torture your hung over room mate tomorrow morning!

No Free Sample Friday today because I'm feeling lazy, but Wave Alchemy have some free goodies for you via their free "Wired Electronics"drum sample collection. According to Wave Alchemy the following gear went into making these:

The power of the computers in our studios these days has opened a lot of doors. Not only does it allow developers to come up with entirely new approaches to sound synthesis that would be prohibitively expensive in hardware form, but it allows them to re-visit previous, well-mined methods in an attempt to bring them into the present. The latter is the case with Big Tick Audio's Rhino.

WHAT IS IT?At its heart, Rhino is essentially a modern take on an FM synth. This doesn't really tell the whole story, however, because Rhino also allows the use of sampled sounds and contains an additive synthesis-based generator for creating still more custom waveforms. Indeed, you don't need to use the FM features at all, as you can pass the oscillators straight to the filters without them modulating one another for more traditional subtractive or sample & synthesis type timbres.

INSTALLATIONInstallation is your standard installer. Copy protection comes in the form of a key file. Without the key file, the plug-in operates in demo mode, which restricts you from saving presets or automating parameters. Pretty simple stuff.

MANUALThe manual is worth noting here as it is surprisingly concise for such a complex synth, weighing in at only 19 pages. This isn't because it's lacking anything, though. Everything is outlined in a pretty easy to understand way without being unnecessarily long. So that's good news for those of you who hate reading manuals. The bad news is, you probably will need to read this one. A lot of how Rhino works isn't immediately apparent on first sight, so the manual is helpful in unraveling any mysteries you might encounter.

INTERFACEI'll say right from the start that I was not a fan of Rhino's interface. The parameter names text is small and difficult to read, and overall the interface's look feels "old" to me, as if it were a much older softsynth. You can switch skins for different looks, but I really felt like the default skin should look better than it does.

My second issue with it may be nit-picky, but I found the use of horizontal sliders a bit off-putting as well. To me, vertical sliders are much more intuitive as far as giving one a quick visual representation of parameter values. Your mileage may vary.

One final small complaint - each oscillator's settings are accessed via tabs. For the most part, this makes perfect sense, but I did find myself wishing that there was maybe a 'global oscillators' page that displayed basic settings for all oscillators on a single page, thus allowing you to tweak relative volume, pan, and pitch parameters quickly while being able to see the other oscillators settings at a glance. Since FM synthesis is highly dependent on the way the oscillators interact with one another, being able to compare pitch settings of each oscillator in one place would be handy.

OSCILLATORSRhino is comprised of 6 oscillators. These can be used as operators for traditional 6-OP FM (indeed, Rhino will import sounds from Yamaha's venerable DX-7, giving you a wealth of other presets right off the bat), or simply as oscillators in the more traditional, subtractive sense. A generous selection of waveforms is available ranging from the standard synth waves, to sampled attacks, loops, nature sounds, percussion, and user waveforms created via the simple additive generator. Additional waveform packs can also be added to further expand Rhino's palette.

Each of Rhino's oscillators can be accessed via tabs at the top of the interface. Herein you'll find settings for the oscillator's amplitude envelope, waveshaping envelope, pitch, envelope, and phase envelope, the oscillator's waveform, keyboard and velocity tracking (which can be set to modulate a variety of parameters), waveshaping, pitch modulation and random pitch, glide time, phase, and coarse and fine settings.

FILTERSRhino offers 2 filters which can be run in series or parallel, each offering 20 different filter types including variations on lowpass, bandpass, and highpass. The layout of the filter page is very similar to the oscillator pages, allowing scaling of filter parameters via key tracking or velocity & aftertouch, dedicated filter and resonance envelopes, morphable waveshaping, and the expected cutoff and resonance settings. The filters can also feed back into each other which opens the door to more extreme, ear-shredding territory should you be wishing to punish your ears.

The filters sound decent, if pretty non-descript. There's nothing here that's really going to light you on fire for the most part, but they get the job done.

ENVELOPESI would be remiss if I didn't make a mention of the envelopes throughout. As you might expect, these are rather more complex than your standard ADSR, allowing you to add and subtract points, lock points into position, or even loop to use the envelopes as a complex LFO. These are, of course, syncable to host tempo as well. One feature I really liked and would love to see more developers offering complex envelopes use, is that if you just need a standard ADSR envelope, there are settings at the top of the window allowing you to do just that without having to dirty your hands with the more complex side of things.

MODULATIONHere's where things start to get a bit more complex. FM synthesis is all about modulation, namely oscillators modulating each other. In traditional FM synthesis, pre-defined algorhithmsdescribed how those oscillators would interact. Rhino is significantly more open-ended, giving you a matrix allowing you to freely route the desired level of an oscillator to other oscillators, the filters, ring modulators, or the raw output. This obviously is a much more flexible and open-ended way of doing things, but for those not familiar with FM synthesis, it can also be a bit bewildering. The option of some commonly-used, pre-defined set-ups might be a helpful, time-saving addition in a future version.

Next to the mod matrix, are a series of six sliders marked as 'user controls'. These can be assigned to a wide range of parameters that make up your sound allowing quick access to useful sound-altering tweaks.

SEQUENCERRhino contains an up to 16-step sequencer with separate rows for setting pitch, velocity, and note length, allowing very expressive grooves and sequences to be programmed. Sequences can be saved and loaded, and a random mode is also available. Again, the horizontal sliders are bit odd to use in this context, at least to me.

ADDITIVE GENERATORIf the selection of waveforms that ship with Rhino aren't enough to keep you satisfied, you can create your own 64-partial additive waveforms. These can be saved and loaded to disk, and WAVs can be imported and analyzed as well. The upper display is where you define the level of each partial, while a very helpful display below it shows you what your waveform looks like in real time.

EFFECTSEach sound in Rhino can have up to two effects, run either in parallel or series. You've got access to over 20 effects here ranging from the expected delays, choruses, flangers, phasers, and reverbs, to more esoteric effects such as the crazy comb, the chaos chorus, and the stereo granulator. The quality of the effects are generally decent, although I found most of the reverbs pretty disappointing.

IN USEAs you can see from what I've discussed, Rhino is a pretty complex beast. FM synthesis is already fairly complex on its own, but when you add the open-ended flexibility Rhino offers, its easy to see just how much more complex and potentially confusing to novices this could get. Big Tick seems to understand that and includes a very generous selection of over 1,000 presets to get you started. The problem is, these are a mixed bag at best. The patches that come up in the default bank are predictably the most impressive and indeed give a peek at what Rhino is capable of. However, once you start exploring the sounds in the sub-categories (via the very helpful patch browser), things are more of a mixed bag. I found quite a few of these to sound extremely dated and uninspiring. Certainly when compared to the presets that ship with comparable products such as Native Instruments FM8 or Rob Papen's Blue, most of these come up a bit short.

My general feeling is that Rhino is a very powerful synth with a lot of depth to it - a programmer's synth. The people that are likely to get the most out of it are those that are at least somewhat familiar with the inner workings of FM synthesis. I'm not sure if I would recommend this as an instrument to learn FM from scratch, however. If you really like to roll up your sleeves and get down and dirty with your programming, Rhino offers you a lot of territory to explore and an extremely flexible engine for producing sounds. Overall, though, I feel like this is an instrument that hasn't quite reached its full potential yet. Certain aspects such as the interface, the filters, and the effects fell into the "good enough" category, where I felt like a synth with so much obvious thought behind it deserves for those things to be spectacular. I am confident that Big Tick will improve those aspects in future versions, but in the meantime, I highly recommend downloading the demo and giving it a test spin yourself. [7.5/10]

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

I'm a bit late to the party on this one, as it was released awhile back, but if you missed it as I did, this is the latest product from Sugar Bytes, who are known for their unconventional effects. Guitarist claims to be a complete solution for emulating electric guitar on your Mac or PC. Sounds kind of interesting. Here's what they have to say about it:

" Absolutely convincing guitar riffs, combined with amps, wah pedals and effects. The actual guitar player has been transformed into a step sequencer system that allows control about playing styles, chord progressions and song structures. Guitarist can be played live as well, with just two fingers you can combine chords and patterns easily. You can choose from factory chords or just create your own chords on the fingerboard. The Action Section allows you to tweak the sequence in realtime and apply timestretch, looper or other crazy effects. Guitar players, keyboarders, producers, Guitarist is the new solution when guitar tracks are needed."

Monday, December 27, 2010

You may remember seeing these tasty pictures on sites like Sequencer.de a little while back. Apparently a sort of 'fantasy synth' concept created by the readers of Amazona.de, U-he's Urs Heckman decided to take on the concept as a softsynth since it was similar to the Roland Juno 60-inspired "Diva" synth he was already working on.

The downloads are available here, although please note that you will have to register for the Amazona.de forum to reach them, and the forum is German language only.

I mentioned a little while back that Sonic Charge would be releasing a big (and free) update to its wonderful µTonic drum synth/drum machine plug-in on New Year's Eve. Now, they've spilled a few details on some of the new features we can all expect. (Thanks to Ronnie over on Rekkerd for posting this, as I missed it originally! Hope you had a great Christmas!)

Here's the deets:

"One week left of 2010, which means one week left before the first major µTonic upgrade in over five years. I thought today would be a good day to reveal a bit more about the upcoming version 3.0.

The primary motivation behind this upgrade is to transform µTonic into a more dynamic instrument, without sacrificing its simplicity or drastically alter its "trademark sound". We've always been proud of how µTonic sounds, and our intention has never been to turn it into a MegaTonic. If you are expecting to see four oscillators with sample playback and granular delay effects on top, you will be disappointed. Instead, you are going to see a set of well-balanced new features for exploring sounds, building patterns and performing live withµTonic. Features that will bring the best out of the beast.

We have already revealed that the upgrade is free and will feature the much requested support for "MIDI Program Changes" and "MIDI-file drag and drop". I will now reveal another significant addition: "Morph". "Morph" lets you transform all eight drum patches simultaneously from one point to another. This feature can be used both for performance (think: dramatic build-ups), for editing (think: finding semi-random sounds, "Synplant style") or for crazy loony fun experiments (think: what would it sound like if I morph the kick to a snare and the snare to a kick, back and forth?).

A sound-file says more than a thousand words so I pulled a random preset from our big preset-bag ("EE Flat Lines") and made a quick little arrangement with three different morph configurations. Enjoy."

Not long ago, I did a review of Aalto, a very unconventional softsynth created by fellow Seattlites Madrona Labs. In time for the holidays, they've released a free reverb plug-in for OSX based on the cool, retro-sounding 'verb you'll find in Aalto.

Friday, December 24, 2010

This week's Free Sample Friday is small and simple, but one I hope will inspire you to go a bit nuts with your favorite sound design tools to warp into something new. This is a single sample of a length of PVC pipe being struck. The approximate root note is G#. Enjoy!

"A TR-808 sounds great, but sometimes a bit of grit can make it sound more distinct. That’s why I ran the already lovely lofi Goldbaby Cassette 808 samples through a Mattel UCreate Music, a cheap toy sampler/FX unit/loopplayer. It adds a harsh 8bit crunch to all the sounds without loosing punch. I hope you like it!"

A little over a year ago, I reviewed the first version of Tonebuilder's Driven Machine Drums (read the review here). If you haven't heard of it, Driven Machine Drums is a library of drum machine and synthetic percussion sounds processed with various bits of high-end pre-amps, compressors, and distortion units resulting in uncommonly punchy and present sounds that are ready to drop in a mix as-is with little, if any, need for further processing.

Rather than wait until the full version 2 was ready, soundmeister Nathaniel Shreve decided to release a version 1.5 with a generous upgrade path in hopes of being able to invest any of the proceeds towards more gear to make tasty drum sounds with. Shreve says this expansion pack is intended to fill in some of the gaps in the original library, rather than being a standalone library of its own, but to be honest, I think he's being a bit modest, as the new material is more than capable of standing on its own merits. Most of the over 2,200 new sounds were created with modular gear components, so the emphasis here is mainly on synthetic drum sounds.

The expansion is divided into the following categories: Hand Percussion, Hats and Cymbals, Kicks, Other Percussion, Snares, Toms, and Unknown Electronic. Helpfully, most of these categories are further organized by descriptors like "dirty", "soft". "tight", etc. This is very handy when you're looking for a particular type of sound to fit your mix. Additionally, the expansion contains "Hi-fi 909" (the classic Roland beatbox), and "Hi-fi Miami" (featuring Acid Labs Miami 808 clone).

As with its predecessor, the expansion sounds fantastic. There's tons of punch and presence in every sound, lots of low end weight when appropriate, and clear, defined highs when needed. Most users won't ever need to reach for their own processing unless they really want to, making this a great library for budding musicians whose production chops might not have caught up to their ambitions yet. Also worth noting is that the new sounds are recorded at 24 bits at 96k, unlike the previous library which was at 44.1k. Happily, most samplers will handle these files without a hitch, so no conversion is necessary for those of us who generally work at lower sample rates.

There's no denying it, Tonebuilder has another winner on their hands. If you're in the market for some amazing-sounding individual drum sounds to spice up your productions, this is a damn good place to start. [10/10]

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Just a quick plug to let people know Waveformless reader David Winn has started a blog about his musical dabblings and the experience of being an upstart musician. You can check it out here. There's not much there at the moment, but it's certainly fertile ground for discussion...

Sonic Charge's Magnus Lindström announced this week that a major upgrade to his highly-regarded µTonic drum synth would be released on New Year's Eve at a minute before midnight. There are no details on what features we can expect from the new version, although I have heard rumors that it might include the ability to view the pattern sequencer for all parts as a single grid, more akin to the traditional Roland TR drum grids.

And the best news? The upgrade is absolutely free to registered users! Not a bad last minute Christmas present, eh?

The Guardian has an interesting piece about the link between musicians and depression. This has long been a sort of "chicken-or-egg" discussion I've found fascinating. Do creative people create because they're depressed or are their mitigating factors about being creative that cause or worsen depression?

I think it may be a little of Column A and a little of Column B. On the one hand, creative outlets are an attractive way of dealing with personal demons, often giving a sense of catharsis to the creator. This is only broadened when, for example, one can get up in front of a venue full of people, and get positive feedback on one's self-expression. There is a sense of feeling not so alone - of feeling understood, even if only superficially.

On the other hand, much of what goes along with being a musician, reinforces the negative emotions. Most accomplished musicians I know are never satisfied with their work. There is a sense of "chasing the dragon", or seeking some imaginary ideal of perfection they most likely will never reach. Heaven forbid you receive a bad review or feel like the message you're trying to convey has been lost on the audience. Add in the conditions of touring (night after night of little sleep, excessive drinking or drug use, eating shitty food), and you have a recipe that would test even the most cheerful demeanor.

Depression is something that runs in my family and something I've dealt with on and off for a long time. I can honestly say that I think music has saved my life on many occasions. Even when the deck seemed stacked against me, even when I've felt my most hopeless, I've taken comfort in the fact that I can sit down behind the keyboard and lose myself for an hour or two.

Of course, history shows us that creativity in itself isn't some sort of panacea. We've lost countless brilliant artists, writers, and musicians before their time because their pain was too much for them to bear. But I like to think having a creative outlet at the very least gives you a leg up on those who don't when it comes to getting through hard times.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Today's free samples consist of a grainy, multi-sampled synth sound with some gated reverb reminiscent of the kind of PPG sounds you might have heard on Depeche Mode's "Construction Time Again". Root keys are in the file names. I accidentally made these as AIFs instead of WAVs, so you PC folks may prefer to change the format. I've included enough sustain on these that looping them should be a cinch should you care to do that. Enjoy! [5.5 MB]